Jay Flemma, Esq.
Jay represents clients from all across the country in intellectual property, music, film, TV, sports and publishing. Besides musicians such as rock and roll acts, jazz and pop musicians, producers and Internet companies, Jay is counsel to such national record companies as Dutch East India Trading, Home Grown Music Network, and Skazz Records. In the course of his career, Jay also has represented Thelonious Monk, Dr. Billy Taylor, Ravi Coltrane, moe., Jazz Mandolin Project, Yngvie Malmsteen, Grammy nominees Bowling For Soup, Saving Jane, and other top 40 artists in trademark, intellectual property, licensing and entertainment matters. His clients have appeared as recording artists for Sony, Elektra, Megaforce, Jive, Rykodisc, Capitol and many other labels. He also represents several actresses, magicians, film directors (including 2002 Sundance Festival Award winner for the film “Sister Helen”), television producers, comedians and comedy troupes, pop artists, musical instrument manufacturing companies, golf pros and sports broadcasters in their transactional, licensing, Internet, and intellectual property matters. Jay has also registered hundreds of trademarks and trade dress for musicians, instrument companies, music business executives and media companies. He has also defended several Internet file-sharers against RIAA downloading infringement suits. As a nationally recognized expert on the issue of Internet distribution of music, Jay’s expertise has been requested and relied on by government officials and representatives in both the U.S. and U.K. He has appeared on BBC World Business News as a commentator on on-line file-sharing and is also frequently consulted by the AP and MSNBC. Jay also handles complex TV and sports broadcasting and network license agreements and co-branding agreements for all types of entertainers and companies.
Jay was the Program Chair for and a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association's Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section for whom he authored two chapters for a Bar Association book on litigating entertainment cases, one on on-line file sharing of music and one on parody as a fair use. He also served for six years on the Executive Committee of the Copyright Society (NY Chapter.) His numerous publications include articles in scholarly journals, the NYS Journal of Entertainment Art and Sports Law, and the World Encyclopedia of Popular Music. He also frequently lectures for CLE programs sponsored by the Copyright Society of the USA and the New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment and Sports Law Sections. In 2000 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Business Law and Music Law at the prestigious Pratt Institute, where he taught for three years.
Besides practicing law, Jay is an internationally respected and golf writer for Golf Observer Magazine (www.golfobserver.com), Cybergolf, (www.cybergolf.com) and contributes to Golf Magazine, Golf World and several other prominent publications. He now has an Internet radio show on Golf News Network where he interviews PGA, LPGA and network broadcasting stars. To date, he has covered ten U.S. Opens, nine PGA Championships and one Masters Tournament. He has been published in eight books, is writing another three, and is syndicated internationally across the Internet. He has won seven major national sports writing awards form the top journalistic credentialing bodies in sports. Jay is fiercely loyal to his alma maters, Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and Trinity College in Connecticut. Jay is an alumnus of Syracuse Law.
